Kevin Cooper is guilty

The title of this post is the title of this column by SF Chrontrarian Debra Saunders. Among those quoted are two former members of Cooper's own team: former cop turned PI Paul Ingels and well-known forensic DNA expert Edward Blake.

Dr. Edward T. Blake boasts that he has been involved in "more postconviction exonerations than anybody in the world," and he worked for Cooper's defense.

As a professional, Blake doesn't appreciate others trying to game DNA testing.

I asked, "Is Cooper guilty?"

"Yeah, he's guilty," Blake answered, "as determined by the trial and the failure of a very extensive postconviction investigation to prove otherwise."

Blake also doesn't appreciate that [Ninth Circuit Judge William Fletcher's] conspiracy theory outrageously accuses and condemns law enforcement officials without an investigation or a trial.

Worse, to buy into Fletcher's theory, you have to believe that as far back as 1983, the local constabulary had the foresight to plant Cooper's blood in the Ryen home, his saliva in the car and also found a way to put Cooper's DNA on a T-shirt with a victim's DNA - even though prosecutors didn't present the T-shirt at trial. That is, you have to believe everything but the evidence.

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Cooper's case is among the handful in California where the appeal and state and federal habeas proceedings have been concluded and the only thing holding up execution is the residual lethal injection litigation.

Cooper's case actually had two rounds of federal habeas, being one of the very few where the Court of Appeals allowed a successive habeas petition under 28 U.S.C. §2244(b)(3).